Isn’t it funny how a certain smell, flavor or image can conjure up a world of memories?

Somehow it is never the elaborate recipes or the fancy meals, it is a bowl of soup in your mum’s kitchen on a cold day, a cup of peach icetea across the table from a dear friend, a fresh loaf of bread from your grandmother’s oven, the cookies you made for your kids’ class and stayed up till 2 in the morning decorating and packing them, the salad you made for your best friend and forgot the parsley.

Despite the fact that there is no such thing as Autumn here in the UAE (the temperature is still dancing around 40C and the humidity is still brutal), when October rolls around, it flips a switch inside of me. I start to crave the smell of warm spices and things in brown and red hues!

You see, in my book , fall is almost as magical as spring! I know this may sound crazy but think of it this way: spring carries the hope and promise of new beginnings while fall tries to teach you time and time again that sometimes you have to let go in order to grow and start over when your spring comes around.Letting go is not easy but even endings can be beautiful if you believe deep down that you have the potential to bloom again in spring

Like this:

Isn’t it fascinating how simple ingredients like flour, butter, a pinch of salt and a splash of milk can be used to produce so many different culinary creations?

The more recipes I learn from different cuisines and cultures, the more enchanting I find human creativity to be. The recipes that come from different cultures carry a bit of that culture’s essence or soul if you will, making the experience of making those recipes “and of course eating the results” deeper, more profound and more enjoyable.

The February Arabic flavor recipe comes from Kuwait and my experience with exploring the Kuwaiti cuisine has been quite similar to other Arabic Gulf cuisines, I find myself particularly drawn to the spice profiles of the recipes

I love recipes that combine oats and coconut.I know that it is not one of the first flavor combinations that come to mind. But I have tried it in biscotti, cookies, granola and every time the coconut transforms the oatmeal from good old earthy and boring to nutty and interesting.